Monday, May 26, 2014

Review- X-Men: Days Of Future Past

X-Men:
Days Of Future Past (20th Century Fox, 2014)

I
was obsessed with The X-Men in the '80s. I read and owned everything.
Giant-Size X-Men #1, Uncanny X-Men #94 up to
whatever-issue-was-current in 1989, I had them all. I had two paper
routes and poured all of my money earned from years of toil into
collecting comics and cassettes. I sold 90% of my comics off when my
Mom died in the mid '90s and I suddenly found myself needing cash
fast, essentially giving them away for pennies on the dollar. I wish
that eBay existed back then! Thanks to collected editions I have
since reacquired my entire collection. My favorite run on the title
was the Claremont/Byrne one, and issues 141 and 142, Days Of
Future Past, were among the ones that I revisited over and over
and over.

You
might want to get a drink and a snack before you begin reading,
because this could take a while. If you have not seen this movie
and/or are averse to spoilers,
then you should exit this post now.

I
have been disappointed with all of the X-Men
movies except for X-Men:
First Class,
which, while largely unfaithful to the source material, was a highly
enjoyable movie.
This, the sixth (fifth if you don't count X-Men
Origins: Wolverine)
movie in the franchise is the best one yet, being at or near the same
level of quality as the Marvel Studios films of recent vintage. The
story flows smoothly and the edits are all tastefully done. No
Dramamine required to watch this one, folks.

The
movie takes place in the future of 2023 and the past of 1973, a stark
difference from the comics, which took place during the fall of 1980
(the time of original issue publication) and and the future of 2013.
Kitty Pryde, whose only comic book ability is to phase, takes the
place of Rachel Summers from the comics (Cyclops and Phoenix/Marvel
Girl's daughter from what became a divergent timeline, since the
X-Men succeeded in the comics) to send Wolverine into the past to
prevent the assassination of Bolivar Trask that helped launch the
Sentinel program. Kitty Pryde was the one sent back in the comic
books to prevent the assassination of Presidential candidate Senator
Robert Kelly. Kelly was portrayed by actor Bruce Davis (Willard,
Ben) in the first X-Men movie.

Bolivar Trask was not a
midget in the comics. I have no idea what the point of that was. The
typical politically correct douchebag fanboy rant would paint me as
anti-midget since I thought that his casting was wrong. No, morons,
Bolivar Trask was not a midget in the comics, that is why I
don't like it. Too many crybabies on the Internet these days.
Tolerance now means absolute compliance in this bizarre
divergent future timeline where tragedies such as 9/11 and Justin
Bieber happened.

The
Sentinels of the future seem more like The Fury from Captain
Britiain. The Sentinels of the past don't look anywhere near as
cool as Jack Kirby's or Neal Adams' versions. Like nearly all movies
with flashback sequences, the 1973 of the film is more 1973 than 1973
likely was. Quicksilver wearing a silk screened Pink Floyd Dark
Side Of The Moon t-shirt is stupid and flat out wrong. Real
shirts from that tour did not look like that, and store bought shirts
of the era were iron-on transfers, not silk screened images. Speaking
of Quicksilver (played by Tate from American Horror Story),
his sequence got the best response from the audience. The character
was wrong on every level, but worked for the movie.

Every
X-Man from every film gets at least a cameo here. Some, like
Colossus, finally get some screen time. Others debut here for the
first time: Bishop, Sunspot, and Blink. Bishop is like the Jar Jar
Binks of the X-Men. I honestly can't think of a single appearance of
his that has ever made me not wince in pain. The best thing about
this movie is that it essentially wipes out everything that has
happened in the previous films. This is a sequel that is a prequel
sequel that is a reboot.

Product
placement and deviation from the source material aside, this was a
fine movie as a movie. I did not see some of my favorite comics come
to life but I did see a fine alternate universe movie. I really
enjoyed it for what it is, and I am honestly looking forward to
X-Men: Apocalypse, which is teased in the after credits scene.